Johannesburg –The Lewis Group’s shares surged more than 8% on the JSE on Tuesday after the household and electrical appliances retailer declared a cash dividend of 65cents a share for the year to the end of March, taking its total dividend to 185c despite the impact of Covid-19 on its operations.
The group said Covid-19 adjustments reduced profit before taxation by R339 million and headline earnings by R224-million.
“This includes an increase in the debtors impairment provision of R123m as a result of lost collections in March, due to store closures during lockdown, a further increase of R190m in the debtors impairment provision for the potential economic disruption of Covid-19 and its impact on future customer account payments, and an impairment charge of R27m for the possible future impact of Covid-19 in terms of the IFRS 16 lease accounting standard,” said the group.
Lewis Group blamed the national lockdown for its 30.8% decline in headline earnings per share to 260cents a share.
However, chief executive Johan Enslin said that the group’s business model proved resilient during the lockdown trading restrictions.
“The strength of our balance sheet and cash position ensured that we did not need to access any bank funding during the lockdown period despite all our stores being closed for an extended period,” said Enslin.
